Warp-winding from cakes



Dec. 19, 1950 J. S. CHAYA ETAL WARP-WINDING FROM CAKES Original FiledApril 4, 1944 INVENTORS. JOHN k5. CHAYA /LL/AM L. \sPAN/y Patented Dec.19, 1950 WARP-WINDING FROM CAKES John S. Chaya, Springfield, Pa., andWilliam L. Spann, deceased, late of Concord Township, Delaware County,Pa., by Marian L. Spann, executrix, Chester, Pa., assignors to AmericanViscose Corporation, Wilmington, Del., a corporation of DelawareOriginal application April 4, 1944,. Serial No. 529,448. Divided andthis application August 13, 1947, Serial No. 768,326

1 Claim.

This invention relates toan improved method for warping filamentarymaterial such as thread, yarn, or the like. More particularly theinvention relates to a method of directly warping filamentary materialcollected in a spinning pot in the form of a package having acylindrical inner periphery, wherein the material is unwound over theends of a multiplicity of such packages mounted in stationary positionon a creel and directly fed to the warp-beam. This is a division of ourpending application, Serial Number 529,448, filed April 4, 1944.

In some methods of producing artificial yarn, thread or the like, as forexample in accordance with the viscose process, the material iscollected in a spinning pot or bucket in the form of an annular packagehaving a cylindrical inner periphery and known as a cake. It isdesirable to warp the material directly from such cakes, in order toavoid undue handling of the thread which presents added opportunity forbreaks to occur, thus increasing the possibility that the warpedmaterial will possess imperfections such as knots due to pieced ends andalso increasing the manufacturing costs as a result of waste, and inorder to effect a reduction in the amount of time and labor required inpreparing the material for the textile mills.

However, in order to produce a satisfactory warp beam, and avoid varyingdegrees of stretching along the length of the yarn wound thereon, thethread must be unwound from package form and fed to the warp beam underconditions of substantially constant and uniform tension. Greatdifliculty has been experienced, heretofore, in unwinding the freshlyspun material from the cake obtained from the spinning bucket under suchuniform and constant tension conditions, especially when the unwindingoperation is effected at high speed. lhe freshly spun cakes comprise aplurality of layers of thread superimposed on each other, which may bemore or less irregularly wound and which, at high speed, have a tendencynot to be evenly and cleanly drawn oil, the material unwinding from thesurface of the package having a tendency to balloon irregularly so thatthe unwinding loops jam up and become entangled'or snarled. thussubjecting the unwinding thread, at some points thereof, to

undue tension or even causing the thread to drag fore, it is thepractice to rewind the material from the cake form onto a plurality ofcones, and to then feed the material to the warp-beam from the regularlywound cone-packages mounted on a creel.

It has been suggested to rotatably support a plurality of rayon cakes ona specially constructed creel and unwind the material tangentially fromthe cakes, at right angles to their axes, dependence being placed on thetangential pull of the unwinding material to effect rotation. Thatmethod may be useful for certain purposes, but it is entirely unsuitablefor practical use in large scale warping where extremely high operatingspeeds are an essential requirement because, as the cake rotates, theyarn is subjected to a constant jerking action which, at high operatingspeeds, causes uncontrollable variations of tension, and thus ofstretching, in the unwinding thread and leads to frequent breakstherein. Further, the use of such rotated cakes in high speed warpinghas the disadvantage that if operation of the warp beam is interruptedtemporarily for any reason, the rotation of the cakes, and unwinding of,material therefrom, continues and the loosened or unwound loops ofmaterial build up and become tangled, which necessitates discarding aconsiderable quantity of thread.

Moreover, it is impossible to transfer warp ends from one rotatingpackage to another without twisting and tangling the thread and hencerotating packages are not suitable for use with creels of the magazinetype, such as are preferred for large scale warping operations.

One object of the present invention is to provide a method for directly.warping artificial filamentary material. under controlled tension from amultiplicity of rayon cakes obtained by collecting the freshly-spunmaterial in a spinning pot or bucket. facilitate high-speed warping ofartificial filamentary material from such rayon cakes without the stepsof unwinding the material from the cakes initially obtained andre-winding it on cones, prior to the warping operation.

Another object is to feed yarns or the like directly to a warp-beam overthe ends of a plurality of cakes supported on the novel holders mountedto occur and thus reduce the number of imperfec Another object of theinvention is to i companying drawing, in which Figure l is an isometricview of a package holder constructed in accordance with our invention;

Figure 2 is a view, in cross-section, of the holder of our inventionhaving a rayon cake supported thereon; and

Figure 3 is a plan view of two elements of a conventional creel andwarp-beam set up, the creel having mounted thereon supported rayon cakesin accordance with our invention.

Broadly, the new package holder which constitutes one feature of ourinvention, comprises a hollow member having a tapered inner surfaceadapted to grip a cone-shaped holder, such as the holder of a standardcone creel, and a member surrounding at least a portion of saidcone-shaped member and having a cylindrical exterior surface forsupporting a supply package in the form of a cake, obtained bycollecting filamentary material in a spinning pot or bucket. The holdermay also include a member associated with the hollow interiorly taperedmember and adapted to control the tension by controlling the ballooning,of thread or yarn unwinding over the end of the package, when the holderis used to support a rayon cake or the like during an over-end unwindingoperation.

Referring more particularly to Figure 1, the new package holder maycomprise an outer cylindrical shell I mounted on a c rcular aperturedbase plate 2 and surrounding a hol ow inner cone 3 which is fitted intoand projects axially from the centrally disposed aperture in base plate2. Gone 3 is adapted to fit over and grip a standard type of cone holder4 and is preferably provided at its smaller end with an inturned annularportion 3a presenting a cylindrical internal surface or bore extendingaxially of the cone a substantial distance. Rigid reinforcing members 6and 1 are fitted between the outside surface of cone 3 and the insidesurface of shell I. An annular recess 8 may be formed between the shelland cone as shown or the member 6 may be flush with the end of the shellI. The axial length of shell I is shown considerably less than thecorres onding length of the cone 3. However, the shell may be evenshorter than shown or it may be fully as long as the cone ,or evensomewhat longer. When it approaches the length of the cone or is ofgreater length than the cone, it is preferable that the member 6 bedisposed some distance within the end of the shell so that, an annularrecess is provided about the cone similar to that shown in Figures 1 and2. It is preferable to use a shell having a length less than that of thecone since such a holder is adaptable for supporting cakes having axiallengths within a wide range of sizes. The tension controlling meanscomprises a guide I6 spaced axially from the cake and an annular guidingsurface which may take the form of an edge or rim of a plate I which maybe of any form or shape, but must have a diameter at least as great as,and preferably greater than, the outside diameter of the supply package.so that it projects outwardly with respect thereto. As shown, thetensioncontrolling guiding member I II takes the form of a dished orcupped cover centered with respect to cone 3 having an outer rimprojecting backwardly over cake I I Cover I0 is provided with retainingmeans I2 which pro- Jects into and is held by frictional engagement inthe internal surface of the annular portion 3a of cone 3, and serves toretain the cover firmly in place on the holder during an unwindingoperation. Cover III is also provided with a knob I3 to facilitateremoval and replacement thereof on the holder.

As shown in Figure 2, the rayon cake I I may be supported on the holderby placing the same over shell I. A flexible cufi 9 which may be of anysuitable material such as vulcanized fiber, cellulose or the like, maybe inserted between shell I and the cake and, due to its ability tocontract or expand as required, it automatically adapts the holder touse with otherwise unsupported packages or cakes of any diameter. Duringwarping, the cakes of rayon, which may be wrapped in the usualprotective fabric sleeve 20, are placed upon the cake-holdersconstructed in accordance with the invention and mounted on aconventional creel I4 as shown in Figure 3. The protective fabric isunfolded from the outside of the cake and one end of the fabric istucked into annular recess 8, while the other end of the fabric isfolded around and back of circular or annular base plate 2. The yarn orthread I5 is led oil over the end of each cake, guided around and overthe edge of member ID and thence through the guide I6. The guide isadjustable as shown at 2i. The strands from a multiplicity of cakes arecarried to a warpbeam II, on which they are wound in the usual manner.

As the yarn or thread is unwound and led over the end of the cake, ittends to balloon out between the cake and guide I6. A certain amount ofsuch ballooning is permissible and even desirable, since it preventsundue tension or pull on the yarn unwinding from the surface of the cakeand traveling to the warp-beam. However, ballooning is often irregular,due to irregularities in the windings comprising the cake, and, further,such irregularity is apt to become excessive as the diameter of the cakedecreases during the unwinding of the yarn from the surface thereof, oras the result of other variations in the unwinding conditions. Whenirregularities in the winding are reached during unwinding, theysometimes cause sudden increases in tension causing temporary completecollapse of the balloon. Also, as the rate of revolution of the balloonincreases because of decreasing diameter of the cake, the balloonprogressively decreases until the point is reached at which the balloonis completely collapsed. When this collapse occurs, regardless of cause,the unwinding yarn drags across the windings at the outer peripheralsurface of the cake, and tension is excessive. This dragging from apartially exhausted cake is referred to in the art as run-out drag. Suchirregular ballooning must be avoided during warping of the thread inorder to ensure constant and uniform tension of the unwinding yarn, andto prevent the yarn from becoming entangled and thus broken or otherwisedamaged. Member II! which has a diameter greater than the outsidediameter of the rayon cake, and which may be of any shape but projectsback over the feeding end of the cake, especially in the case of cakesconsisting of heavy yarns, serves as a thread guiding means and holdsthe ballooning above a predetermined minimum thus ensuring at least aminimum angle of take-off of the yarn as the cake diameter diminishes;so that run-out drag is substantially non-existent. By holding theballooning of the unwinding yarn above a predetermined minimum, memberI0 serves, in conjunction with the adjustable guide IE, to maintain thetension on the thread or yarn substantially uniform throughout theentire unwinding and warping operation.

The invention offers a distinct improvement in the usual methods ofpreparing yarn or the like produced according to the viscose process foruse as the warp of a woven material in subsequent textile operations,since it permits high speed warping directly from the cake initiallyobtained by after-treating and drying in cake form the freely spunmaterial collected in a spinning pot, and avoids entirely the necessityfor coning the material prior to warping the same.

The package holder of our invention may be adapted for use with creelsof any type in which the unwinding packages are stationary and may 'beused in any desired position such as horizontal or vertical and ineither of such positions the yarn or thread may be unwound over eitherthe top or bottom end :of the package. The method of warping and thenovel package holder of our invention are particularly suitable for usein connection with creels of the magazine type where the yarn may be fedcontinuously in succession over the ends of stationary rayon cakes, theinside end of the feeding yarn or thread of one cake being attached tothe outside end of the yarn of a reserve cake as shown at 18 in Figure3. As shown there the cake-holders are supported in a plurality ofpairs, the axes of each cake in a pair being disposed so that theyconverge, and the guide I6 which cooperates therewith is disposed so,that it is adjustable along the bisectrix of the angle between the twoconverging axes of the pair.

The over-end unwinding from non-rotating packages permits high operatingspeeds without undue tension in the yarn and the yarn may be unwoundover the ends of the cakes and continuously fed to the warp-beamatlineal speeds of 300 to 350 yards per minute or more under controlledtension and ballooning conditions and with a minimum of breaks. Due toelimination of the step of intermediately transferring the yarn to acone-shaped package, when it is obtained in the form of a cake from aspinning pot or bucket, the amount of handling to which the yarn issubjected is substantially reduced and as a consequence the warped yarnis of better quality and has fewer knots due to pieced ends, for anygiven length thereof, than has ordinarily been the case.

The method of the present invention may be applied in the warping ofnatural or artificial filamentary material, such as yarn or thread,consisting of cotton, hemp, etc.,: or consisting of regeneratedcellulose obtained from viscose, cuprammonium or nitrocellulose;cellulose esters such as cellulose acetate, cellulose butyrate, andmixed cellulose esters such as cellulose acetatebutyrate; celluloseethers such as ethyl and benzyl cellulose; fibroin, casein, and otherprotein threads, linear polymers such as nylon; etc.

Although the package holder is shown and described herein moreparticularly in combination with a thread-guiding and tensioncontrolling means, and as used for supporting a rayon cake or the likeduring a direct cake to warp-beam unwinding operation, and is of specialadvantage for that purpose, it is not limited to such use but may beused in coning, copping, doubling, reeling, or any other textileoperation where it is desired to support a package in the form of acake, in any position from vertical to horizontal, and with orwithoutthe thread tension and balloon controlling means.

Changes and modifications may be made in the device specificallyillustrated in the drawing. For example, the thread-guiding and tensioncontrolling member l0 may be of any form or shape provided its diameteris as great as or greater than the outer diameter of the supply packageof fila mentary material. Obviously,- also, it may be associated withthe holder and maintained in place thereon during the unwinding andwarping operation, in any convenient manner. All such changes andmodifications are within the scope I of the above-described inventionwhich is not to be limited except as set forth in the appended claim.

We claim:

A method of warpingfrom cakes of yarn mounted in a creel by a pluralityof supports having outer annular bases, each cake being carried by theannular base with one end of the cake in direct contact with the base,comprising unwinding the yarn from each cake by guiding it over the endthereof opposite to the end in contact with the base of the support,passing the yarn unwinding from the cake around an annular guidingsurface lying between the opposite ends of the cake and having adiameter greater than that of a full cake, to prevent sloughing-ofl ofthe yarn from the end of the cake over which the yarn is unwound duringthe unwinding operation, to control the angle of take-off of the yarnfrom the cake, and to hold ballooning of the yarn above a predeterminedminimum during the entire unwinding operation, passing the yarnproceeding around the annular guiding surface through a guide spacedgenerally axially from the end of the cake over which the yarn is beingunwound, and then guiding the several unwinding yarns to a rotating warpbeam.

JOHN S. CHAYA.

MARIAN L. SPANN. Executriz of the Estate of William L. Sperm.

Deceased.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the SnyderNov. 16, 1937

